Business advances can be halted if data quality is lacking

Companies are investing in big data strategies to benefit from technological advances that enable them to make better decisions using up-to-the-minute information and insights. Business and technology writer Jamie Yap explained in a recent ZDNet article that enterprises are using these capabilities to operate their enterprises at the speed of thought, running with new correlations as soon as they are discerned from the vast amounts of structured and unstructured data.

For example, analysts can use big data strategies to harness customer information and structure it so it can be interpreted, revealing valuable predictions about future buying behavior, Bryce Maddock, CEO of Taskus.com and contributor for The Huffington Post, wrote in a recent article.

When it's done right, companies can use this knowledge to save money by ensuring every dollar spent is done so wisely.

If businesses approach big data without a plan and specific goals in mind, they may end up disappointed or worse, explains Harvard Business Review. Hasty deployments can lead to bad data quality, which is characterized by mismatched, incomplete or missing data sets that can lead to widespread issues.